Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Carers lost everything during the pandemic. They lost their day services and respite, including their unofficial respite in the form of help from grandparents and other family members when we were all told to isolate, keep apart and stay in our homes. As for the parents of children in special schools, even those schools for children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities closed. For children and parents alike, their lifeline was gone. The workload of family carers increased monumentally overnight with no time to prepare. They were on the front line of this pandemic. Let us be frank, we all relied on their work. Without this and the Government being able to rely on the phenomenal work of carers, the Government would have been in a real predicament. I simply cannot understand how they have been left behind again.

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